Fear Itself is available to watch on the BBCiPlayer and it’s excellent. Watch it, watch it now!Beyond Clueless director Charlie Lyne has created something of a masterpiece. His new film, Fear Itself, which is constructed entirely from horror films is like a deeply personal but very relatable art project.

Narrated by Amy E Watson whose voice is calm and considered, talks about the nature of fear over the perfectly chosen scenes from various horror films.Most are films you will recognise but there are some that I hadn’t heard of that I’ll now be looking to find. Luckily each clip has the title and year of release in the corner of the screen. Nor are they scenes you might expect, it’s all about subtlety and the ambiguity of fear.

Fear Itself has an ethereal quality that I really like, it’s like a dream. The film asks us many questions about how we react to horror films and muses about life imitating art and all the while a creeping sense of dread builds as you wonder what you’re going to see next.

The film takes viewers on a journey through fear via cinema and it is definitely one of the best things I’ve seen on TV for a long time.
This is art.

2 Responses to Fear Itself

Nice thoughts, Moxie.Started to watch it and got sucked into trying to identify the clips and the ‘seen it’ type of thing. As it went on , it became quite fascinating. You began to wonder why certain clips were used, and why they ran some for longer (compare/contrast Jaws/Frankenstein (1931)). It did become quite intense at some points (I nearly switched off when we got to the clip from Pig) but overall a very different way of looking at the horror film. Possibly to be seen as at the more pretentious end (the British Horror Films featured included Night Of The Demon, Peeping Tom, Repulsion, Don’t Look Now ) but as a stream of consciousness ’twas very illuminating. I kind of tuned out the voice over, which would suddenly intrude at unexpected points. Overall I liked it. Might even have to try it again, to see if it has the same effect. (Especially as one of the points mentioned was desensitisation.)